I was so looking forward to this months Practical Caravan magazine when I saw that it had an article about this year's special edition caravans. I'm in the process of buying a Bailey Jive Titanium 640 which is Roper's Phoenix 640 special edition. Afraid I haven't seen such a poorly prepared article in a long time. In the case of the Bailey special editions I don't think one of them actually listed the correct add-ons which make up the special edition. The errors weren't consistent. This means that I cant rely on the information supplied by Practical Caravan to make a decision about which way to go regarding purchasing. Worse, if I was a new purchaser looking at your article I would discount the Bailey Phoenix special editions as they appear to lack the basics. This really isn't good enough.
Special Edition caravans
- Thread starter AdenG1
- Start date
Not been through that lot but it is not something I would want to go through anyway. If I wanted a special edition caravan then I would check with they dealers to see what they had. Generally though you pay for a lot of things that are of no real use like different furnishings and decals plus things you may not need. They may work for some people but you need to look at what you really want from the list and see if it is worth your while paying the extra.
Raywood said:
Whilst I certainly wouldn’t rely heavily on specific details from any magazine when deciding which caravan to buy, I completely disagree with Rays comments here.
Whilst the “list” price is always thousands of pounds higher, In my experience, you should be able to purchase a dealer special for either the same price or at the very worst no more than £500 more than the model on which it is based. Whilst I wouldn’t have chosen to equip my van with many of the extras it came equipped with as a dealer special, I now wouldn’t be without them, such as the 100W solar panel, external BBQ gas point, external mains socket, additional external locker access, remote control alarm etc. not to mention a much more uplifting interior colour scheme and more upmarket external graphics.
To say that different furnishings are of no real use, then of course, from a practicality sense that is true, but if a dealer special is equipped with with a more contemporary colour scheme than the van it on which it is based, then that alone can totally transform the van, especially if the standard model is furnished in dowdy beige and brown shades.
Very best of luck with your new purchase Aden !
Hope this helps,
Ic.
Icaru5 said:
I agree that irrespective of views on furnishings, the hardware extras more than cover the extra £500. Plus when it comes to time to sell dealer specials are attractive to subsequent buyers. So the real cost of the extras is less than £500 when taking that into account plus the first owner has use of the extras too.
Assuming the caravan industry marketing strategists went to the same college courses the car industry ones went to, then its probable dealer specials are usually produced when the model on which they are based has its production days numbered, and its a way of drumming up a few extra sales to get rid of factory stock.
If the options you get are what you want and you are prepared to pay the price then so be it, but its likely its resale value will be significantly diminished in only a few months when the model is put on sale. So you need to add to your costs the devaluation of the product if you change your caravan every two or three years.
If the options you get are what you want and you are prepared to pay the price then so be it, but its likely its resale value will be significantly diminished in only a few months when the model is put on sale. So you need to add to your costs the devaluation of the product if you change your caravan every two or three years.
Parksy
Moderator
Dealer Special models are introduced at or near to the beginning of a production run, not at the end Prof.
The specials, each bearing a name that is associated with a particular dealership, are awarded to selected dealers to provide an inducement to customers to buy from that (usually) long established dealership. The cost is often the same as or very near to that of the bog standard model in many cases, in fact apart from the figure I'd already managed to negotiate when we bought ours I also managed to get an extra £800 off on the day because we bought just after a sales special weekend when the dealer (Davan Caravans, Weston Super Mare) had held a barbeque and other activities to attract customers, so we did rather well.
Our 2007 Abbey 620 dealer special bought from new has extra 230v sockets, an extra tv aerial socket, a wet locker, external 230v socket and gas BBQ point and outside under bed storage access, and many of the extras were later added to standard production models. We paid considerably less than the list price for our caravan at that time but it was a buyers market for large t/a caravans back then.
The specials, each bearing a name that is associated with a particular dealership, are awarded to selected dealers to provide an inducement to customers to buy from that (usually) long established dealership. The cost is often the same as or very near to that of the bog standard model in many cases, in fact apart from the figure I'd already managed to negotiate when we bought ours I also managed to get an extra £800 off on the day because we bought just after a sales special weekend when the dealer (Davan Caravans, Weston Super Mare) had held a barbeque and other activities to attract customers, so we did rather well.
Our 2007 Abbey 620 dealer special bought from new has extra 230v sockets, an extra tv aerial socket, a wet locker, external 230v socket and gas BBQ point and outside under bed storage access, and many of the extras were later added to standard production models. We paid considerably less than the list price for our caravan at that time but it was a buyers market for large t/a caravans back then.
ProfJohnL said:
As Parksy says Prof, this really isn’t the case.
With the majority of the main manufacturers, each model is “refreshed” on an annual basis in any case, and so it isn’t a matter of a trying to dress up a model which “has its production days numbered”.
The dealer specials are a specific production run of a very much current van, with a number of additional useful features and usually a different interior colour scheme and exterior graphics from the model on which they are based. As mentioned in my previous post, despite the official list price of a dealer special being thousands more than the standard model, even those with very little negotiational skills are able to by them for the same price, or only very slightly more than the best offer they have been given for the standard model.
The fact that a van is a dealer special is not catalytic to its depreciation, in fact, quite the opposite. Given the number of different dealer specials available, I would even say that if someone is in the market for an entry or mid-level van, it makes very little sense, if any at all, choosing to purchase a standard model over a dealer special, unless of course the standard model is offered at a very heavily discounted price that is just too good to ignore.
If you don't ask for something that you might want you don't know if you'll get it ! We asked for a few things on ours and we got them , saved quite a bit .
Don't be shy . B)
Don't be shy . B)
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